06 November 2008

Too Much of Good Thing - Neil Anderson

Most of us won't often be tempted to commit obvious sins such as armed robbery, murder, or rape.
Satan is too clever and subtle for that. He knows that we will recognize the flagrant wrong in such temptations and refuse to act on them. Instead, his tactic is to entice us to push something good beyond the boundary of the will of God until it becomes sin. He treats us like the proverbial frog in the pot of water: gradually turning up the heat of temptation, hoping we don't notice that we are approaching the boundary of God's will and jump out before something good becomes sin.
 
1 Cor 6:12  All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.  Paul saw nothing but green lights in every direction of the Christian life. Everything is good and lawful for us because we are free from sin and no longer under the condemnation of the law. But he also knew that if we irresponsibly floorboard our lives in any of these good and lawful directions we will eventually run the red light of God's will, and that's sin.
 
So reflect on the following that can take the good things that God created beyond the boundary of God's will :
1.  physical rest becomes laziness
2.  quietness becomes noncommunication
3.  ability to profit becomes avarice and greed
4.  enjoyment of life becomes intemperence
5.  physical pleasure becomes sensuality
6.  interest in the possessions of others becomes covetousness
7.  enjoyment of food becomes gluttony
8.  self-care becomes selfishness
9.  self-respect becomes conceit
10 communication becomes gossip
11 cautiousness becomes unbelief
12 positiveness becomes insensitivity
13 anger becomes rage and bad temper
14 lovingkindness becomes overprotection
15 judgement becomes criticism
16 same-sex friendship becomes homosexuality
17 sexual freedom becomes immorality
18 conscientiousness becomes perfectionism
19 generosity becomes wastefulness
20 self-protection becomes dishonesty
21 carefulness becomes fear
 
 

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